Tag: Character Development

• Let’s Write – The Structural Edit: Characters

  

  Welcome back to our series about self-editing! We’ve already covered The Basics of Self-Editing and The Structural Edit – Plot and Setting. Today is all about characters. We’re going to cover: As the title suggests, this post breaks down those character development and POV issues we should look for while we edit our manuscripts. But…

  Yolandie Horak

  April 14, 2025

  Writing

  Basic Editing, Basic Self-Editing, Book Editing, Character Development, Character Voice, Characterisation, Deep Point of View, Deep POV, Developmental Editing, Easy Editing, Easy Self-Editing, Edit, Editing, Editors, How to Edit A Book, How to Edit a Novel, How to Edit Your Own Book, How to Edit Your Own Novel, How To Self-Edit, Learning How to Self Edit, Line Editing, Novel Editing, Point of View, POV, Self-Editing, Structural Editing, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing Dialogue

• Updated Planning Methods

  

  Planning a novel doesn’t always come easily. As a hybrid planner/pantser and an ADHD’er, I often find myself super excited at the beginning of the planning process, pouring myself into putting every minute detail to paper. Until the impatience sets in, at which point I must write. Once I’ve abandoned the planning, I hurl myself…

  Yolandie Horak

  April 2, 2024

  Writing

  A Curse of Venom & Scales, A Study of Ash & Smoke, A Trial of Sparks & Kindling, ACOVAS, AI Character Art, AI Generated Art, Ash & Smoke, ASOAAS, ATOSAK, Better Writing, Book Planning, Cara, Character Art, Character Development, Characters, Fall of the Mantle, Fall of the Mantle Book 1, Fall of the Mantle Book 2, Fall of the Mantle Book 3, Indie Writers, Jacques, Katsuro, Lance, My Writing Process, Nathan, Novel Planning, Planning Methods for Writers, Pointy, Sera, Seraphine, Update, Varda, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Goals, Writing Journey

• Let’s Write PTSD

  

  Updated in 2022 I touched a slight bit on PTSD in the Let’s Write Fear post, but I figure this is a complex emotional state and needs more detail. This is a post about how traumatic events might influence characters, which means traumatic events will be mentioned. Not in detail, but they’re there. Please don’t…

  Yolandie Horak

  August 18, 2020

  Writing

  Anxiety, Character Development, Emotions, Let’s Write, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Resources, Stuff for Writers, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writers’ Resources, Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Emotions, Writing Life, Writing PTSD

• My Favourite Character Trope: The Lovable Rogue

  

  The way to hook this reader is easy. Write a character who is always dressed to impress, has the wildest charm and self-confidence, flirts with everyone, says things the protagonist thinks but would never utter, and is willing to take the quickest route to get the job done–even if that means doing morally questionable things.…

  Yolandie Horak

  June 25, 2019

  Writing

  Character Development, Character Tropes, Characters, tropes, Tropes we hate, Tropes we love, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing Community, Writing Journey

• Strong Female Characters

  

  There’s this thing all around the internet. Advice paired with a general outcry–write strong female characters. I’ve had multiple conversations about this in the last few weeks, and I thought we could continue chatting about it here. People want Strong Female Characters (from here on SFC) to the point where they come down really hard…

  Yolandie Horak

  February 6, 2019

  Writing

  Character Development, Characters, Resources, Strong Characters, Strong Female Characters, Stuff for Writers, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writers’ Resources, Writing

• Writing, as Taught by Kids’ TV Shows

  

  A year or so ago, I read a writing exercise idea on a blog that changed the way I view watching TV. The blogger in question would make notes of, then dissect the episode she was watching. She’d figure out which plot points worked, which didn’t, where the dialogue fell flat, where it rocked, and…

  Yolandie Horak

  June 28, 2017

  Writing

  Better Dialogue, Better Writing, Character Development, Creativity, Foreshadowing, Learning Something New, My Little Pony, Series, Suits, TV, Typeface, Writer, Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing Advice